NATIONALPOLICYSUMMITLAUNCHEDINACCRA

A National Policy Summit to provide a platform for government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to engage stakeholders in their operations has been launched in Accra.

The two-day Summit, which comes off on the 2nd and 3rd of May 2017, will be organized on the theme: ‘Building Partnerships for Growth and Jobs’ and is expected to help government elicit feedback to enhance further policy development.

The event will witness a total of six sessions, each dedicated to a specific subject and to providing targeted information to meeting the needs of specific stakeholders.

Speaking at the launch, the Minister for Information, Mr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, disclosed that the Summit would focus on the economy because it was the biggest challenge inherited by the Akufo-Addo administration and the sector that had received the biggest share of government’s policy attention in its first-three months.

“Having delivered a budget that commences the exercise of correcting the challenges of the economy and sows the seed for growth and jobs, we are now ready to tell our story and stimulate the needed partnership for results,” Mr Abdul-Hamid said.

The Minister for Business Development, Mr Mohammed Awal, who declared the Summit launched, indicated that the Summit would provide a platform for the interrogation of policies and programmes and the fostering of partnership between government and the private sector in the areas of finance, agriculture, trade and industry, energy, infrastructure and poverty eradication.

Mr Awal explained that the Economy and Finance Session would focus on showing how banks, contractors, taxpayers and industry would be affected by government’s macro-economic policy this year.

In addition, he said, the session would also show how private players could leverage the renewed business confidence following the tax cuts and focus their activities towards government’s priority areas.

On energy, Mr Awal said, the Summit would engage Independent Power Producers interested in government’s alternative energy programmes as well as the Bulk Distributing Companies wanting to understand some of the new programmes.

Concerning Agriculture, Trade and Industry Session, he said the focus would be on providing details which would empower the private sector to participate in the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme and on how private players and potential employees could participate in the operationalization of the One-District-One-Factory Initiative.

Mr Awal said the session on poverty eradication would showcase how the local private sector could tap into the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme for local investment and growth.

The opening and closing sessions of the Summit will be done by President Akufo-Addo and his Vice, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, respectively.